Trackballs was a much more widespread different to traditional laptop mice, however they’ve all however disappeared these days. One of many solely choices from a serious model is the Kensington Professional Mouse, which has stay unchanged for a decade or so—till now, as Kensington has simply revealed a brand new design. However when (or if) you will get it isn’t clear.
The brand new Professional Mouse TB800 EQ is a trackball and never a mouse. (That’s a legacy identify that goes again to the Eighties.) It seems to have debuted on the iF Design Awards web page, the place it received a 2025 award (noticed by Liliputing). The essential structure appears to be like much like the most recent iteration of the Professional Mouse, with the large central trackball nestled in a scroll wheel and surrounded by 4 major “mouse” buttons.
Enhancements embody scroll bars on each side for ambidextrous operation, DPI switches, and multi-device Bluetooth/dongle wi-fi. The paragraph of promo materials on the web page mentions “customizable buttons”—I’m assuming these textured ones up high—that may be sure to as much as 16 customizable duties. A USB connection seems to be on the entrance, and I’d guess it’s utilizing a chargeable battery improve as an alternative of AA. (However once more, that’s only a guess.)
Kensington
The web page says the brand new Professional Mouse was launched in 2024, which I’m going to interpret as when it was submitted to iF Design since Kensington clearly hasn’t launched it but. In truth, there’s no indication of when Kensington will achieve this, or even when the launch continues to be deliberate. These pictures appear to be retail promo photographs to me, however one thing may have occurred throughout the improvement course of to delay all of it.
Actually, I’m having a tough time distinguishing the tons of of pages of iF Design Award winners (and that’s simply 2025!) from, say, common press releases. Whereas lots of the winners are industrial merchandise, there are additionally one-off designs and ideas that can by no means hit retailer cabinets.
Kensington
However I do know no less than one particular person shall be ready in line when/if the Professional Mouse TB800 EQ (or presumably simply the tautological “Professional Mouse Professional,” as seen on the product photographs) arrives: “I’ve been a Kensington Professional trackball consumer since 2009,” mentioned PCWorld’s Adam Patrick Murray, “and have all the time been dumbfounded by how they haven’t up to date it. The brand new one appears to be like superior and I would like it so dangerous.”
You hear that, Kensington? Get it out the door. Your public is ready!
